Voltaire — To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize

Monday, June 25, 2018

A Mexican political candidate has been murdered, and the suspects include the town's entire local police force

Federal police officers arrested all 27 police officers in Ocampo, Michoacan state, along with Oscar Gonzalez Garcia, the town's public security secretary. They are suspects in the murder of 64-year-old mayoral candidate Fernando Angeles Suarez, who was shot dead by unknown gunmen. Suarez — a local businessman whose friends say was running for office because he strongly opposed corruption — is among three political candidates killed in Michoacan and more than 120 killed across Mexico in the exceptionally violent run-up to the July 1, 2018 general elections. Suarez "couldn't stand seeing so much poverty, inequality, and corruption and so he decided to run," one of his friends said. After Suarez and his wife were shot dead outside a hotel, federal police tried to arrest Garcia, the public security secretary, but were blocked by the 27 officers under his command. They returned the next day with reinforcements to make the arrests. Few other arrests have been made in connection with the killing of other candidates.